William Makepeace THACKERAY

First edition with all the features of the first printing: "actresses" line 33 of page 207 of the first volume, chapters 47 and 48 erroneously printed as 48 and 49 in the first volume.
Full grey paper boards, smooth spines decorated with blind fillets and slightly discolored, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
Work illustrated by William Makepeace Thackeray, each volume with a frontispiece, a title vignette, 22 plates hors-texte as well as numerous in-text drawings.
Occasional foxing, for each of the 48 plates hors-texte, a placement indication in relation to the text was probably made by the binder so as not to mistake the order of the engravings.
Handsome copy.

First collected edition. The first 22 volumes are dated 1869, the last two (Miscellaneous Essays) were published in 1886, and it is very rare to find them together. Abundant illustration with plates (approximately 250 engravings) and text illustrations (1500 wood engravings) by the author, Doyle, Walker, Du Maurier and others. The novels contain a frontispiece and an engraved title. Some volumes still have conjugate leaves.
Publisher's full green cloth binding, gilt. Smooth spine elaborately gilt in compartments. Boards stamped in blind with decorative plate and central gilt monogram of WPT. One small split to headcap of volume 2 of The Newcomes, 2 to the Burlesques volume, otherwise headcaps sunken but superb set. Paper very clean with some foxing to endpapers and first leaves. Exceptionally fine preservation.
Armorial bookplate of the XIXth Baron de Bellet
Contents of the edition: VANITY FAIR vols. I-II; THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS vols. I-II; THE NEWCOMES vols. I-II; THE HISTORY OF HENRY ESMOND; THE VIRGINIANS vols. I-II; THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP vols. I-II; THE PARIS SKETCH BOOK and THE YELLOWPLUSH PAPERS; THE MEMOIRS OF BARRY LYNDON and THE HISTORY OF SAMUEL TITMARSH AND THE GREAT HOGGARTY DIAMOND; THE IRISH SKETCH BOOK and NOTES OF A JOURNEY FROM CORNHILL TO GRAND CAIRO; THE BOOK OF SNOBS and SKETCHES AND TRAVELS IN LONDON; BURLESQUES; THE CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF MR. M.A. TITMARSH; BALLADS AND TALES; THE FOUR GEORGEES and THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS; ROUNDABOUT PAPERS and THE SECOND FUNERAL OF NAPOLEON; DENNIS DUVAL and LOVEL THE WIDOWER; CATHERINE, LITTLE TRAVELS, and THE FITZBOODLE PAPERS; MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS, SKETCHES AND REVIEWS; and CONTRIBUTIONS TO "PUNCH.

[PHOTOGRAPH] Photographic portrait of William Makepeace THACKERAY
L Caldesi, London 1870, 6.5 x 10.5 cm
Very rare.
Manuscript annotation to verso. Photographer's reference to reverse and under the image.
A handsome photograph of the writer standing, towards the end of his life. Thackeray died in 1863 at the age of 52. One copy in the National Gallery, London.

First edition abundantly illustrated with 2 engraved titles with vignettes and very numerous in-text vignettes by the author, as well as 46 plates by Richard Doyle.
Contemporary English binding in half green calf with corners. Spine with false raised bands richly decorated. Brown shagreen title and volume labels. Rubbing to headcaps, joints and corners. Brown dampstain to engraved titles in margin, and to the first 3 plates, the dampstain becoming pale on all plates, more or less pronounced, sometimes minimal, sometimes present.
The tribulations of a young English gentleman seeking his place in society and in life, the novel is a satire of human nature and Victorian aristocratic society. Publication extended over 2 years due to the author's illness, who dedicated the second volume to his doctor. Thackeray is one of the most important authors of the 19th-century English literature, along with Dickens, of the following generation.